Wait a minute!
by Olaf Erikson
Summary: Harry somehow travels back in time and doesn't care. This time he's going to do it right. He starts his own Order to fight the coming war. Independent Harry. Slight Dumbledore bashing.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Harry blinked his eyes and centered himself. What was going on?

"Well, do you want my help finding the proper sort of friends or not?!"

Harry looked around and took stock of himself. Everything in its place? Check. Wand? Check. Ron, Hermione, and Neville in the compartment? Check. Malfoy and goons? Unfortunately… check.

He didn't know how he had appeared to travel back to his first ride to Hogwarts, but since he was going to do it again, he was gonna do things right.

Harry stuck out his hand for Malfoy to take.

The soon to be Slytherin grabbed hold and they shook. Ron was almost apoplectic with rage at the whole idea of his new friend shaking the hand of his sworn enemy. Hermione looked troubled and Neville… well, he was merely confused.

Not letting go of Malfoy's hand, Harry pulled him in close.

"I know who your true 'Master' is Draco. I also know who your father puts his lot in with. And I want no part of it!"

Pulling back a bit, Harry cocked his free hand and yanked hard on Draco's arm. Letting his fist fly, he buried it at least several centimeters into the boy's gut.

Draco's face immediately went red and then white as he fought to breathe. Falling back allowed Harry to close the compartment door. Whipping out his wand, he put all his power into a spell.

"Colloportus!"

He re-took his seat and closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, he found his past (or was it future) friends staring at him in wonder. Hermione was again looking troubled, but Ron and Neville looked positively gleeful.

"Harry, you're going to…" started Hermione.

"Be in my good book forever for that stunt." Finished Ron.

The suddenly popular Harry Potter looked at Hermione.

"I know that you have read 'Hogwarts: A History' a dozen or so times already so far haven't you?"

Hermione looked embarrassed as she mumbled "Two dozen.".

"Tell me, is there any rule that forbids the use of magic on the Express?"

"According to the bylaws of Hogwarts, it is to be used for defensive purposes or studying only."

"Good. That's exactly what I needed to find out."

"Find out what Harry?" asked Neville.

"Anybody ever hear of the Fidelius Charm?... put your hand down Hermione and give others a chance to excel at something."

Chagrined, she put her hand down before it was even half way up.

Ron shook his head and simply stated 'No'. Neville on the other hand looked as though he were trying to remember something.

"It has to do with keeping secrets, doesn't it Harry?"

"Indeed it does. It is the concealment of a specific secret within a living soul. Difficult to pull off, but the result is that unless the secret-keeper voluntarily gives up the secret, even Veritaserum and Legilimency won't find it."

His three friends were amazed at the thought.

"For example: if we cast the charm to hide the existence of this cabin on the train, as long as we remained inside of it, nobody and I do mean nobody, not even Professor Dumbledore himself could find us. Even if his crooked nose were pressed up to the outside window looking in."

Hermione was outraged at Harry's 'crooked nose' comment.

Seeing that she was about to fly off the handle, Harry looked at her pointedly.

"He is a great Headmaster, Hermione. Possibly the best ever to grace the halls of Hogwarts. He is even considered the most powerful wizard in centuries. But you are forgetting something rather important."

Calming a bit, Hermione asked the million Galleon question.

"And what is that?"

"Ever hear the saying 'To err is human'?"

"Yes."

"Do you all see what I am getting at?"

Though they did not answer him directly, Harry saw looks of understanding dawn upon their faces.

"To make my point, I must ask you all to do something for me. I ask this of you three because I trust you. And I will tell you everything, if you agree to my condition."

Seeing their collective nods, he continued.

"Ron and Neville, I would like for the two of you to explain to Hermione what the differences are between a wizard's oath and a blood oath."

Ron had an inkling of what Harry was going to ask of them. So he began.

"A wizard's oath is a verbal promise, sealed by the magic of their wand to do whatever is asked of them. Should they fail, depending on the circumstances, the consequences can be as simple as being unable to speak for a while to losing your ability to perform magic of any type."

Neville, as forgetful as he was understood what was going on.

"And the blood oath is much the same except that the promise is sealed in the giver's blood and not by their wand. The result of breaking a blood oath is very severe."

Hermione looked horrified. Yet she asked any way.

"What are the consequences for breaking such an oath?"

Neville looked at her pointedly.

"You'll die." He said in a small voice.

Hermione was white as a sheet, but looking resolute.

"What could be so horrible that you would ask us to do either of those?"

Harry pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration as he closed his eyes.

"I'll give you a sample of what I am asking of you." Turning to Neville, he spoke.

"Have we ever met before today? Even if it was just passing by on the street?"

Neville thought for a moment before answering… "No."

"I must ask your forgiveness for revealing a painful secret of yours, but I must do it."

"If things are as serious as you are claiming, then you are forgiven."

Steeling himself, Harry spoke again.

"Please tell us how and why your parents are in the long term care ward of St. Mungo's Hospital."

White-faced, Neville nodded and answered.

"It was several years ago. They were at home with me since I was a baby at the time. Although I was there, I don't personally know what happened. My gran said that three of You-know-who's followers broke into our house and tortured my parents with the Cruciatus Curse. It was held on them so long that they were driven insane."

Ron and Hermione were sharing pained looks. Being that she was a girl, Hermione got up from her seat and hugged Neville tightly.

"Ron, since you were raised in the wizarding world, you tell her what that curse is and does."

Ron was looking rather peaked, but nodded his assent.

"The Cruciatus Curse is very simply a spell that causes massive amounts of pain. There is no reason for a spell like that to even be used. That is why it is called an 'Un-forgivable'."

She didn't know whether to be horrified or interested in that she was learning something new.

Harry then focused his gaze on Ron.

"Ron, when you were like 4 or 5 years old, you broke Fred's first broom. He retaliated by transfiguring your favorite teddy-bear into a large spider. You have been afraid of them ever since."

Pale, and a little green around the gills, Ron nodded his head.

Continuing his profound revelations, Harry turned to Hermione.

"We've never met before today either have we?"

"No."

"Then how would I know that your biggest fear is failing at anything? Especially a homework assignment?"

Comprehension dawned on her first. Before she could even open her mouth, Harry charged right in.

"If you want to know how I know these things, give me either oath you wish. I say this to all of you. There are going to be some changes in the way things happen. If any of you wish not to know what I am about to reveal, I will obliviate you with the memory charm and then you will find another place to sit."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Seeing that nobody had moved from their seat, Harry nodded. He handed Neville a small pen-knife that he had found when he was younger. It had been Dudley's, but in his cousin's ever growing stupidity, Dudley had placed it in his pocket one day while forgetting to close one of the blades on the knife. Sitting his massive bottom on a hard bench had caused one of the blades to snap off.

Neville opened the remaining blade and gritted his teeth as he quickly slashed one of his palms. Handing the knife back to its owner, Harry did likewise, placing his cut palm onto Neville's.

"I, Neville Augustus Longbottom do hereby swear on my magic and my life, never to reveal Harry Potter's secrets unless he chooses to release me from my oath. So mote it be."

There was a brief flash of light from their joined hands. Parting their grip, they looked at their respective hands. The blood was gone leaving only a small scar on the palm.

Wiping the blood from the knife, Harry simply held it out towards Ron and Hermione, handle first.

Being a curious but brilliant girl, she never wanted to be left behind or left out of anything. Being so driven, she copied Neville's actions.

"I, Hermione Ann Granger do hereby swear on my magic and my life, never to reveal Harry Potter's secrets unless he chooses to release me from my oath. So mote it be."

Harry had re-opened the scar on his hand, and it was stinging something fierce.

Ron took the knife after it was again cleaned and slashed his palm.

"I, Ronald Bilius Weasley do hereby swear on my magic and my life, never to reveal Harry Potter's secrets unless he chooses to release me from my oath. So mote it be."

With one last flash of light, Harry's hand was healed again.

Settling himself, he began.

"There is no easy way to say this as I am not sure myself what has happened. I have 7 years worth of memories of going to Hogwarts. Did I travel back in time with a Time-turner? No. Did I travel to my past? I am not sure. Was what I thought of as my life simply a dream? I honestly don't know. Am I a Seer? Hell no."

Ron stared at his scarred hand as he spoke.

"What happened with Malfoy?"

"Many things happened with him. The worst thing he did was becoming a Death Eater at the start of our sixth year and having the mission to kill somebody that we all were close to."

Hermione looked fearful as she spoke in a whisper.

"Who?"

"That I can't reveal now. Maybe sometime soon. It is too early in the game to say."

Neville piped up.

"What are we going to do?"

"We are going to train ourselves in many things. Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Dueling, Occlumency, Legilimency and my personal favorite… we will all become Animagi."

Hermione of course loved to learn anything she could get her hands on.

"Why all of that? Except for becoming an Animagus, all of those other things are taught at Hogwarts."

"Ron, could we borrow Scabbers' water bowl for a few minutes?"

"Sure. He's sleeping right now so he won't need it."

Opening his pet rat's cage, he pulled out the palm sized bowl and dumped the contents out the open window. Harry took it from him and muttered a spell at it. It glowed a greenish blue for a moment and then looked normal.

"Harry," Asked Hermione. "What did you do to it?"

"I turned it into a temporary Pensieve."

Placing his wand to his temple, he thought hard and slowly withdrew a silvery strand. Placing it in the Pensieve, he spoke.

"We will be looking at something that was possibly one of the most traumatic experiences in my life."

Seeing their nods, he continued.

"We are going to be looking at the end of my fourth year. Just place a finger into the memory with me and I will tell you what happens as it does happen."

Clustering around the small dish, they all placed a finger in the memory…


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

There was a sensation of falling and then they landed in what looked like an abandoned graveyard. Harry then began his tale.

"I will be arriving in a moment. And keep that cauldron in mind."

There was a flash of bright light and the four of them watched in fascination as an older looking Harry Potter and a rather handsome boy collapsed while holding onto a large cup with handles.

"His name was… Was Cedric Diggory."

They watched as the two memory boys stood up and took stock of their predicament.

'Wands out, you reckon?' came Cedric's voice.

'Yeah.' Came the older Harry's voice.

Ron, Neville and Hermione watched as all of a sudden, a short, balding, beady-eyed man holding a bundle appeared from behind one of the massive grave stones.

A chilling, high voice rendered them speechless.

'Kill the spare.'

The man holding the bundle looked fearful, but resolute as he whipped out a wand and pointed it at Diggory.

'Avada Kedavra!' He screamed.

Hermione screamed as a brilliant flash of green light erupted from the wand and struck Cedric, killing him instantly.

She leaned on Neville for support and Ron and then Harry patted her on the back.

"It gets far worse." intoned Harry.

Three of the four watched on in horrified fascination as the man waved his wand again, conjuring ropes that flew around the older Harry; binding him to a massive grave-marker that read 'Tom Riddle'.

'Do it! Do it now!' came that chilling voice again.

'At once Master.' Was the man's reply.

Moving to the huge cauldron, the man dumped what appeared to be the ugliest baby that any of them had ever seen into a merrily moving liquid.

"Oh, just FYI, that man's name is Pettigrew. Some people knew him as Wormtail."

Wormtail then pointed his wand, not at the bound Harry, but at the grave beneath his feet.

'Bone of the Father, unknowingly given, you shall revive your son.' came the chant.

The earth around the grave cracked and a fine white powder rose out of it and flew into the cauldron, causing it to spark and sputter.

'Flesh of the servant, willingly given, you shall renew your master.'

Wormtail stowed his wand and produced a wicked looking knife. Holding it and his hand over the cauldron, he quickly sliced off his hand, letting it drop into the cauldron.

The man was sobbing pitifully as he stumbled in obvious pain over to the bound and gagged Harry.

Wormtail ripped one of the sleeves off Harry's shirt and cut a small gash into his arm. He then dropped the knife and withdrew a small phial which he used to collect the flowing blood off Harry's arm. Scrabbling back to the cauldron, he poured it in as he chanted one last time.

'Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, you shall revive your foe!'

Pettigrew backed away from the cauldron as it began hissing and tossing sparks in all directions. After a few very tense moments, the walls of the vessel seemed to collapse and they watched in horror as a tall, skeletally thin and naked man rose from a kneeling position.

'Robe me.' Hissed that awful voice.

Wormtail accomplished his task with some difficulty being that he only had one hand to do it with. The newly robed man turned and looked past the group of four right at the bound Harry.

They got a good long look at the thin face that seemed to have been formed by an amateur artist. The nose was missing; what remained of it was flat against the face. The eyes were a piercing and demonic red. He also had no ears to speak of.

There was a wash of color in front of their eyes and the sensation of rising. They all re-appeared in the seats that they had never left. Almost immediately, Ron, Neville and Hermione all got violently ill and vomited their snacks onto the cabin floor. Harry looked at them in sorrow and waved his wand, vanishing the mess. Conjuring three large glasses of water, he handed them to the still ill looking group. The water was guzzled gratefully.

Gasping in a breath, Hermione asked what was on their collective minds.

"What happened? And who was that?"

"A prisoner, one Bartemius Crouch, Jr., escaped from Azkaban prison and found what he was searching for. Honor and glory among his peers. That man you saw was a re-born… Lord Voldemort."

Shocked looks abounded. Hermione, Neville and even Ron started to cry over what they had just borne witness to.

Neville's voice was barely a whisper as he spoke.

"What do you plan to do?"

"Exactly what I did last time; if that time actually happened. I am going to prevent the events you just saw."

It was a great deal to take in for all of them. Silenced reigned for several minutes.

"Ron, Neville… our two resident pureblooded wizards. Have either of you ever heard of a magical object called a 'Horcrux'?"

Seeing their shaking heads, Harry moved on.

"It is a device or object rather, created by the blackest of magics and the most evil of acts. It is something that contains a fragment of a person's soul. Created by murder and very dark magic, it is used to bind some one's soul to this earth, thus preventing them from moving on to the afterlife, whatever it may be. Voldemort did this, not once but six times, fracturing his soul into seven parts. Six are in objects of great importance to him, and the last is just a free-roaming spirit."

Hermione put it all together first.

"And this is how he was able to survive what happened when he tried to kill you?"

"Yes."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Reaching a decision, Harry continued.

"Our first year as I remember it, was easy enough academically. It is what happened behind the scenes that damn near killed us. I want you all to begin thinking of something that will occupy your minds while we have the welcoming feast. The reason being, the potions professor, Severus Snape, is a very skilled Legilimens and Occlumens. This means he has the ability to sift through your thoughts at his leisure. Keeping a running thought in your mind will make it rather difficult for him to do this."

Apprehension showed on their faces as they realized that Snape was nothing more than a rapist of the mind.

"He defected from the Death Eaters after a rather life changing event. The headmaster gave him absolution and a job at Hogwarts as being a professor and head of Slytherin house. He is rather prejudiced against anybody not in his house. That is why we need to learn Occlumency and we do need to excel in potions."

This was a great deal to take in for all of them. Ron looked worried about all the extra studying that they would be doing. Harry noticed this.

"Since I have knowledge of what is or may come, we will need a way to finance what we need to do. A way to purchase supplies. I propose that we set up a 4 way access vault at Gringotts for our use. I will start the account with **G**10,000."

Hermione looked apprehensive at the amount of money that Harry was casually throwing into the pot.

"Harry, not that I mind, but how are you able to do this?"

"A good question Hermione. When my parents died, their will had set in motion a trust fund to handle my purchases and needs during my school years. I do have family vaults that have even more funds and personal items, but I won't be able to get into those vaults until I reach my majority."

Seeing that his friends were accepting this, he continued.

"Another thing I plan to do is gamble. Ron, your favorite team is the Chudley Cannons, right?"

Ron nodded.

"Neville, your favorite apothecary is in Diagon Alley?"

Neville nodded that this was correct.

"What I have so far is that we will make bets on how the Cannons play throughout the next seven years. This money will be placed into our new account. I do hate to say this, but the Cannons will never make the playoffs or the Quidditch Cup World Series in the next seven years. What we will do is make bets on how much they will lose by. Ludo Bagman in the department of Games and Sports will be of some use here, since he owes the goblins a lot of money."

Hermione was wondering why Harry had brought up the apothecary and mentioned it.

"It's like this, things will happen in the next few years that will require us to make many potions. There probably will be a few training accidents, but nothing serious. The longer we can keep the headmaster and the school nurse out of it, the better. If we use some of the money to buy stock in the apothecary, we can then Owl them when we need to re-supply or potions needs."

Neville was struck by a sudden thought.

"Harry, are you planning on bringing anyone else in on this little venture?"

Harry grinned.

"As a matter of fact I am, Neville." Raising his voice, He called out loud…

"DOBBY!"

With a slight 'pop', the oddest little creature came into existence right before their eyes.

"Dobby is being here. What does…."

Dobby looked around and saw that he was surrounded by friendly faces, even the face of…

"Harry Potter! Yous is calling on Dobby?"

Harry knelt down to the little elf's height, an easy thing for him since he was rather short himself.

"Dobby, am I correct in thinking that when a house-elf visits another home, they are subject to the rules of that house; so long as they don't interfere with their master's orders?"

Dobby nodded his head so violently that his ears were in danger of flapping off.

"Good. The first rule of this 'house', is that you will NEVER punish yourself if you make a mistake or displease us. You are an equal among friends."

At this Dobby started crying very large tears as he wailed in happiness.

"Dobby is never being treated likes an equal. Masters force Dobby to punish himself badly on a daily basis."

Harry scooped up the little elf and gave him a very good hug.

"That will never happen here. I was wondering, can a house elf use a Pensieve?"

Dobby nodded in affirmation.

"Good. We need your help in the coming years. And we will find a way to free you from your master."

The odd little elf wailed again in happiness as the four of them gave Dobby a group hug.

Harry emptied the Pensieve and began putting in fresh memories. It took him some time as there were a lot to withdraw from his mind.

"Dobby, please keep in mind that I may have traveled back in time by some method. What you will see is memories of what must not happen."


End file.
